


On Call

by gaksital



Category: Girl's Day, VIXX
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2014-11-13
Packaged: 2018-02-25 05:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2610044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaksital/pseuds/gaksital
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Han Sanghyuk desperately wants Jung Taekwoon's approval as a doctor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Call

“Has anyone seen Taekwoon?”

“No,” Sanghyuk answered, looking up from the file he was reading as he leaned against the counter of the nurse’s station. Sanghyuk was wearing the wrong size scrubs again--over the past few weeks, Hongbin had thought it would be funny to replace Sanghyuk’s scrubs with a larger size every month, to see how long it took for the young doctor to notice, and, as much as Hakyeon wanted to tell Sanghyuk about it, Hakyeon had admitted to himself a long time ago that he was slightly curious as well. It had been two weeks so far and he hadn’t noticed. “Why?”

Hakyeon shrugged and grabbed his next patient’s chart, standing next to his younger colleague as he read. “I think Wonshik was looking for him. I think he wants to switch shifts with taekwoon again.”

Sanghyuk groaned. “Why doesn’t he ever ask me to cover his shift?”

Surprised, Hakyeon looked up and stared. “You _want_ to work a night shift? You do realize that makes you pretty much look like the loneliest person on the planet, right?” Hakyeon felt bad for the kid--working at a hospital really isn’t as glamorous as television shows made it out to be; in fact, most days, it was pretty damn boring. Nobody wanted to stay longer than they had to; not the patients, not the administrators, not even the doctors. All anyone can think about at the end of the day is going home and washing the smell of hospital off of themselves.

But Sanghyuk had only started this year--the hospital hadn’t lost the shiny new toy feeling yet for him. Actually, of all the new doctors that Hakyeon had seen come through this hospital, Sanghyuk had held on to his enthusiasm the longest. Usually by your twelfth person vomiting who-knows-what on you. a new doctor loses his avidity for the job.

“I don’t care,” Sanghyuk stated, defiant to Hakyeon’s thoughts. “I do like it here, and I want to help as many people as possible.”

“Not to mention the pay’s alright, huh?” Jaehwan jumped in, hopping up on the nurse’s station counter next to Hakyeon and Sanghyuk.

All Sanghyuk could do was shrug in response, a small, agreeing smile playing on his lips, satisfying Jaehwan.

“Who’s looking to switch shifts, then?” Jaehwan asked; Hakyeon could hear Jaehwan trying to hold back his curiosity. Unfortunately, while Sanghyuk wanted to stay at the hospital because he liked it, Jaehwan had other reasons for not wanting to leave the building--Jaehwan’s family owned a large chain of restaurants, and his parents had always made it clear to him that he was expected to go into the family business; and even though Jaehwan managed to get into Seoul National University, graduate with honors, and get a fantastic job at a great hospital immediately, his family had never approved; unfortunately, the degree and smarts Jaehwan possessed was not correct in his family, and he was on his own--Jaehwan went from living in one of the most exclusive areas of Seoul to living in the cheapest place he could find that was close enough to the hospital that he didn’t feel like sleeping in the on-call room was a viable option every night. Everyone knew that Jaehwan could afford a better place, but what Hakyeon knew that others didn’t was that Jaehwan was helping his older brother, who had also defied their parents but ended up in the military as a career soldier, save up money for his baby daughter’s future. If he could, Hakyeon knew Jaehwan would take any and all shifts, but he was too nice too steal shifts from Sanghyuk. Instead, Jaehwan did what he did best: make jokes about it.

“You know, I’m beginning to think you live here,” Jaehwan chuckled, shooting a fake suspicious glance at Sanghyuk. “I have half a mind to tell Chief Seo to watch empty patient beds.”

It was a bad joke, but Sanghyuk, eager to please, laughed anyway.

“Has anyone seen Wonshik?” Hongbin suddenly joined them from behind the counter, surprising Jaehwan so much so that he jumped so violently he tried to steady himself by grabbing the things next to him. Thankfully, one of those things was a stable Hakyeon. The other thing, however, was a large rack with a large stack of files laying inside that released all the paper and manila folders it had been holding.

“Dammit,” Jaehwan grumbled, sliding to the ground slowly, shooting a glance at his three colleagues that pleaded for help. He wasn’t going to get any though--it was an unwritten rule that however knocks over the monotonous pile of manila and white must figure out how to reorganize it; bonus points were available if one could do it without a nurse seeing what had happened.

Hakyeon gave Jaehwan an apologetic smile before turning his attention back to Hongbin. “He’s off looking for Taekwoon, we think.”

“Okay; if you see him, tell him we’re on for tonight.”

Hakyeon nodded, and Hongbin left, looking pleased.

“What’s tonight?” Sanghyuk mumbled to Hakyeon.

“Date night,” Hakyeon hissed back. “Don’t worry, Hongbin can’t hear _that_ well.”

Sanghyuk’s ears went red a little, but he didn’t say anything else.

Jaehwan stood back up, groaning, hauling all the papers with him. It looked to Hakyeon as though Jaehwan had shoved papers into random folders, but before he could express how dangerous that was, considering it could mean mixing up patients’ diagnoses or medicinal needs, Jaehwan shushed him with a wave of his hand. “It’s just financial crap.”

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Hakyeon knew that financial information should probably be taken just as seriously as medical things, but he was a doctor, and so was Jaehwan; even if they had worked together to make sure every paper was back where it was definitely supposed to be, it would take them five times as long as it would take the people in the finance department.

“Dr. Jung!” Sanghyuk suddenly said in acknowledgement--just as Taekwoon appeared from the elevators across from them.

“Hey Taekwoon,” both Hakyeon and Jaehwan said in greeting. Hakyeon nudged Sanghyuk slightly, trying to get him to be a little more comfortable greeting Taekwoon, but Sanghyuk wouldn’t. Taekwoon was the doctor that Sanghyuk worked with the least, so there was still some awkwardness on Sanghyuk’s side. He was afraid that Taekwoon didn’t think he was a good doctor, and for some reason, Sanghyuk wanted Taekwoon’s approval more than anyone else’s. Probably because it was the hardest to get, and Sanghyuk liked a challenge.

“Did Wonshik find you?” Jaehwan asked as Taekwoon sidled over, answering with a nod. “And...?”

“I’m going to take his on-call shift tonight,” Taekwoon responded quietly. “Apparently he needed to study a condition for one of his patients and needed some free time.”

Even Sanghyuk allowed himself a chuckle. “Studying” was apparently Wonshik and Hongbin’s new metaphor for date night. Hakyeon could feel Jaehwan holding back a giant laugh. On his other side, Sanghyuk was obviously confused as to whether or not Taekwoon was really that clueless. He wasn’t; Sanghyuk just hadn’t gotten Taekwoon’s deadpan sense of humor yet.

Changing the subject before Sanghyuk couldn’t stand the tension, Jaehwan asked, “When are we going to meet this girl of yours, Taekwoon?”

“Girl?” Sanghyuk asked immediately, before he could realize who he sounded surprised had a girlfriend.

Taekwoon looked at Sanghyuk, expressionless.

“So, when?” Hakyeon interrupted the look, mostly so Sanghyuk’s head didn’t explode from embarrassment.

Taekwoon shifted his gaze to Hakyeon, eyes softening. “Soon, actually. She’s coming up this weekend.” Hakyeon could tell how happy Taekwoon was--though he didn’t express his emotions as forcefully as others, there were still signs that Hakyeon, and not many other people, could pick up on. “By taking Wonshik’s shift, I can take off this weekend to be with her.”

“Have fun with that,” Hakyeon sighed, wishing he could have the same excuse. Before he could say so, however, his beeper went off. He glanced at it, his shoulders falling. “Dammit, looks like our cancer patient has more questions about whether or not his surgery will give him scars,” Hakyeon told Sanghyuk.

“Is this the guy in room 523?” Jaehwan asked. “The last time he was here, he asked me if doctor ‘Ki Mo’ was ever going to visit.”

Even Taekwoon couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“Don’t laugh too hard, Taekwoon; he’s yours tonight,” Hakyeon sighed, leading Sanghyuk away from the nurse’s station.

“Be nicer to Sanghyuk,”Jaehwan told Taekwoon as he started walking away. “He’s still a little scared of you.”

“Why…?” Taekwoon mumbled, more to himself than anything, since Jaehwan moves quicker than anyone else.

\----

Though he didn’t get Wonshik’s shift, Sanghyuk managed to find someone looking for a Friday off anyway, and he was set to work as an on call doctor with Taekwoon that night. He sort of hoped that working on call together will help him feel less awkward around Taekwoon. He also hoped the extra work could help him become more acclimated to being an actual doctor. Somehow he had managed to befriend five more senior doctors, but by befriending them, Sanghyuk felt that he needed to prove himself even more than otherwise.

“Doctor, there’s been a major accident on the freeway,” yelled a very frazzled nurse as she ran up to him. “Some are being sent here and the ER needs as many hands as they can get.”

“Okay,” Sanghyuk breathed. It was his first major incident, and he really wanted to prove himself.

A few minutes later, Sanghyuk could hear the sirens.

“Don’t worry,” a soft voice said from beside him. Looking over, he was surprised to see Taekwoon. “Just do what you can.” And he left, heading towards the ER.

A few minutes later, the gurneys started coming in, and Sanghyuk was handed a small file--it was basically a piece of paper with the patient’s vital information written on it; the EMTs obviously had larger and more pressing priorities than getting an extremely detailed history of a trauma patient.

“She has a few cuts and bruises, and she’s unconscious, but so far, she’s been doing well, considering,” the emergency technician told Sanghyuk, who felt bad for being a little disappointed--his first trauma case, and his assignment was okay. He should have been pleased, but as he looked across the emergency room and watched Taekwoon put his efficiency to work, telling nurses and interns what to do as his bloodied patient continued to cling to life, Sanghyuk felt a little jealous.

Still, his bruised, unconscious patient needed his help. “Get me an ultrasound, please,” Sanghyuk asked of a passing nurse.

A few minutes later, Sanghyuk was finishing up initial tests, and noticed that her pupils weren’t dilating. Suddenly, the guilt from hoping that his patient would be more interesting reared its head. Something was wrong. “We need to get this woman in for a CT scan,” Sanghyuk told another nurse, who immediately ran off to make sure a machine was open, and Sanghyuk went to call the hospital neurologist.

“How are things going?” Taekwoon’s soft voice suddenly asked.

“I think my patient may have some brain damage--her pupils aren’t dilating,” Sanghyuk told him as the phone continued to ring.

“You’re doing well,” Taekwoon said, just as the neurologist answered the phone.

“I have a patient here in the ER that needs a CT scan for possible brain damage,” Sanghyuk told the neurologist, who really hadn’t had much of a chance to say anything. “She’s a twenty-eight year old woman from Daegu, approximately fifty-five kilograms, name, according to her ID is Park Sojin.”

Sanghyuk started walking toward the lab, away from Taekwoon, who had obviously been called back to work, as he ran back into the ER.

Sanghyuk managed to rally a few extra nurses to help him secure the CT machine, but of course the annoying cancer patient from room 523 chose right then to page him, so Sanghyuk had to trust that the nurses and doctors in the ER could get his patient down to the lab.

\----

Just as Sanghyuk was explaining, in the smallest words he could, that scars would heal to the patient in room 523, Hakyeon popped his head in. “Sanghyuk!” he hissed; behind him, Sanghyuk could see Jaehwan, as well as a disheveled looking Wonshik and Hongbin, standing by, in scrubs. “How did things go for you in the ER?”

Sanghyuk shrugged. “I had one of the better ones--I think my patient has a concussion, but she’ll probably be okay.”

“That’s good,” Jaehwan interrupted. He immediately realized what he had said, and then tried to fix it by mumbling about “not meaning what it sounded like,” but no one was really paying attention.

“Where’s Taekwoon?” Hakyeon asked.

“How many times are we going to be saying that today,” grumbled Wonshik.

“In the ER, probably,” Sanghyuk answered with a shrug, slowly working towards the door and away from Annoying Cancer Patient.

“He wasn’t when we were down there just now,” Hongbin said, still looking more than a little annoyed.

“We’ll find him later,” Hakyeon said, pulling Sanghyuk out into the hallway. “Tell me about your patient.”

“She was coming in from Daegu, apparently, and was mostly sideswiped by the three cars in the major part of the accident, name’s Park Sojin, and she didn--”

“Wait,” Hakyeon cut him off, pulling him to a stop, face looking white. “What did you say your patient’s name was?”

“Park...Sojin…”

Hakyeon and Jaehwan, who was looking just as shocked and scared as Hakyeon, exchanged a look that Sanghyuk didn’t understand.

“Let’s go,” Jaehwan breathed, and he and Hakyeon took off running, Sanghyuk following close behind. “Hongbin! Wonshik! Get down to the OR!” Hakyeon yelled as they ran. as confused as he was, Sanghyuk knew something big was happening.

Sanghyuk followed Hakyeon and Jaehwan as the ran all the way down to the basement of the hospital, where most of the labs were. In the observation room for one of the CT machines, they found Taekwoon, standing in front of a screen staring at whatever he was looking at.

“Taekwoon…” Hakyeon sighed, quieter than Sanghyuk had ever heard him.

“She’s not going to make it,” Taekwoon mumbled, so quiet, Sanghyuk wasn’t even sure he had heard correctly.

“Taekwoon….” this time it was Jaehwan, who walked towards his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder.

And suddenly, Sanghyuk remembered the conversation from earlier that day--about how Taekwoon’s girlfriend was going to come visit for the weekend, and how he had taken tonight’s shift to be able to be with her this weekend.

“She wasn’t supposed to come until tomorrow,” Taekwoon continued. Sanghyuk wasn;t even sure Taekwoon knew they were there anymore; his voice sounded like he was very far away; quiet, as always, but it was then that Sanghyuk realized, selfishly, that Taekwoon had never had a problem with him.

Because he was hearing what Taekwoon sounded like when there was a problem.

And it was heartbreaking.

“She was going to surprise me…”

“Taekwoon…” Hakyeon was walking slowly to Taekwoon’s other side. “Taekwoon...I’m so, so sorry.”

“They took her to the operating room, but I saw the scans…” Taekwoon’s voice trailed off. For a minute, nobody moved. Jaehwan and Hakyeon stood beside Taekwoon, both of them with a hand on one of his shoulders.

And then, everything exploded. Or at least, Taekwoon did.

He screamed, picking up print outs of what Sanghyuk could only assume were CT scans of Sojin’s injuries, and threw them back at the computer on the desk, as though trying to make the machine take the offensive pictures back. To make them not happen.

Taekwoon let out a louder, more upset cry, and he fell to the floor, crying.

Sanghyuk couldn’t breathe. He never thought he would see Taekwoon like this, so vulnerable, so angry, so _sad._ Sanghyuk fought back his own anger and sadness, but when he managed to look away from Taekwoon’s shattered body, he looked at Jaehwan and Hakyeon, which was a mistake--the carefree jokester in Jaehwan was completely gone and the man that was left was quietly crying, watching his best friend suffer. Hakyeon was even worse; he was letting the tears fall, but the look on his face told Sanghyuk that not even he had ever seen Taekwoon like this.

Sanghyuk lost it; the dam broke, and everything, all the emotions from not only that evening but the past year, broke through.

He had worked hard--even taking on extra shifts--in the hopes of becoming a doctor that saved all the lives he could; but he had failed, and he had failed with the loved one of someone he suddenly realized that he was closer to than he had thought.

He was absolutely devastated.

But he wasn’t going to let his seniors see it.

He ran.

\----

A few weeks later, Sanghyuk was tying his shoes and getting ready to go to work when he felt someone sit down next to him on the bench. Looking up, he was surprised to see Taekwoon looking back at him. Sanghyuk hadn’t seen him since the night of the accident; between seeing Taekwoon’s distress and feeling his own overwhelming sense of guilt, it had taken Sanghyuk a long time to feel comfortable coming back to work.

Sanghyuk didn’t say anything; he didn’t know what to say. If he said anything, there was a good chance he'd feel that guilt again.

Just as Sanghyuk was beginning to feel the guilt and uncomfortableness creeping back into him, Taekwoon stood up with a sigh and headed towards the door. Sanghyuk started to think coming back to work was a mistake.

“Thank you,” Taekwoon suddenly said from the doorway, looking at Sanghyuk, his expression light. “For doing what you could for her. You’re a good doctor, and I’m glad Sojin got to meet you.”


End file.
